The Desertion
by R.D. Swain
Summary: This is the background story for Jeong Jeong, and explores what eventually led to his desertion. There's drama, romance, action, politics, and eventually tradgedy. Please enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: The Western Water Tribe

Chapter 1: The Western Water Tribe

"So Captain Jeong Jeong, what do we know?" Jian asked. He circled around the table, scanning the papers strewn everywhere. The ink was hardly legible in the dim torch light, and the room glowed with a reddish tint. Jeong Jeong sat at the table, rubbing his temples with his forefingers.

Puzzling over the notes for the coming battle, he collected as much information as possible about the enemy in order to have the slight advantage. This time, the notes taken on their targets provided very little information other than the obvious.

"The culprit was responsible for the assassination of General Li, while he was on leave on Ember Island. They snuck into his home at night, froze his arms and legs to prevent his firebending, and slit his throat with one clean slice of waterbending," he said making a slicing motion with his hand.

"Natural suspicion would be that the waterbender was from the Northern Water Tribe…" Jian proposed.

"An eyewitness account from General Li's wife, described the assassin wearing an elaborate headdress of feathers, not the typical Northern Water Tribe fashion. That's the description of the Western Water Tribe, who resides in the isolated areas north of the ancient Sun Warriors city."

"So…all we know about the enemy is that they are waterbenders, and possibly fashionable," Jian said with is belly moving from a slight chuckle. Unamused Jeong stood up and began pacing the room.

"So little is known about this isolated tribe of water benders. There have been very few accounts of their culture and even fewer records of previous encounters with the Fire Nation, other than their immediate surrender when our ships approached their shores a few decades ago. The most recent accounts of these people were from some troublesome small raids on some of the smaller islands of the Fire Nation, and a few eyewitness reports of similar descriptions. They like to attack at night when the moon is out and their powers at their fullest, and leave few tracks other than the dead bodies in their wake. One noticeable feature of their attacks is that they target important Fire Nation bases, and their leaders."

"And then paranoid old Firelord Azulon became weary of the constant complaints from army officials, and ordered a small band of men to "eliminate" this issue."

"Brother watch your tongue."

"What? It's not like the firelord can hear us. He's three hundred miles away."

"Look, we were chosen for the job, and if we do the job well, there is a sure chance of promotion," Jeong Jeong turned to face his brother.

"Goodness Jeong, calm down and take a break before the battle! You know this will be easy for us" Jian said in a joking tone. This lack of seriousness from his brother always annoyed Jeong.

"Does this mission not trouble you at all brother? We hardly know a thing about our enemy. We don't know if they have large numbers, or even if they're as powerful waterbenders as we think they are. All we have are a few accounts of renegade attacks. For all we know we could be walking into a death trap."

"Calm yourself Jeong. You worry about these things too much. If things can't be solved by a few simple punches and a request for surrender, we can just burn their little island down to the ground. There won't be any of them left to threaten us then," he chuckled to himself.

"That's…not how it should be done. If we use our firebending at all it should be in an honorable battle with them, not just for sheer destruction." Jian acted like he wasn't listening, and simply shrugged off Jeong's remark.

"Like I said, you worry too much. Come. Relax. Have some tea with the men. You will be better off tomorrow if you go into the situation with a clear head anyways." Jeong nodded in agreement, for his brother did have a point, however he could not shake the uneasiness he was feeling about the coming events.

For some fun, the men not only drank tea, but they ate, played music, and told stories of their triumphs in battles against the Earth Kingdom, one man even gave divinations to predict how well the men were going to do the next day. Most of them were positive, and the warriors had good fortunes of grand displays of power and triumph. Jeong's prediction was extremely different.

"You will have a deadly encounter with someone during the battle. Don't be blinded by illusion, or else you won't make it out alive." The mystic said in a dark tone. While Jeong barely believed in these types of arts, this further enhanced his suspicions about the importance of the mission. Jian nudged his younger brother in the ribs.

"Looks like you really do have something to worry about tomorrow, ahahahaha!"

"Ugh, the mud in this place is unbearable. I just don't understand how people can live in this," Jian complained. Jeong was less concerned with the mud and more concerned with his surroundings. The woods were thick with vines and large colorful flora, and the humidity in the air was so thick he could barely breath. The plants were so tall they covered the sun overhead, already putting them at a big disadvantage if they were attacked. Even worse than the climate, was the unsettling silence that seemed to engulf them. Other than the men's metal boots shuffling through the mud, there were no animal calls or birds chirping…

"Captain Jeong Jeong, look out!" He looked up to see the head of the spear coming straight for him. Jumping backwards, he firebended the spear into ash, and caused the water tribe warrior to fall face first into the mud, confused. Soon his surroundings were filled with swirls of fire and the clanging of spears; overwhelmed, he burned every weapon aimed at him wildly, but when he quickly turned around, he felt the prick of a spear on the knot of his throat. When he observed more closely, the spear was waterbended as ice, and a woman with an elaborate headdress of feathers and dark blue eyes held the end of it. She did not kill him on sight or seemed like she was going to, but she kept on driving the point deeper and deeper into his neck and smiled while she did it.

"Hey! Enough of this!" someone yelled over the commotion. All of the water tribe warriors stopped attacking, but held their ground with their spears pointing at the soldiers.

"Please lower your spears! You all have acted too rashly!" A strong looking man with wild hair and light brown skin walked out from the vines, and as he moved toward the small group of benders, the natives slowly lowered their spears to the ground.

"That means you too Kai!" The woman at Jeong's throat made one last poke before she turned her spear back to water, and walked toward the man. Jeong noticed that this so-called _Kai_ and this man were the only people there wearing extremely tall feather headdresses. Kai's was at least a foot tall, with, straight, bright turquoise and purple feathers, while the man's was red and yellow, and the feathers were so long they began to curve down the back of his head. Every else in the group wore feathers that were small, or woven into their hair.

"Now that things are calm, tell me benders, what are you doing on our island?" the man commanded.

"Hello fellow benders," Jian said in his all-too-confident tone. "I am General Jian and we are just here on a small investigation. Recently many of our high-ranking leaders have been attacked and killed in their sleep, on the islands surrounding this one. Now before you get your feathers flustered, I just want to say that I'm not accusing any of you standing here, but the evidence we have so far points to this island and it's waterbenders…"

As Jian continued the diplomacy, Jeong looked around the crowd observing their reactions. Most of them had confused looks on their faces wondering what was going on, except one. Kai slowly rocked back and forth in her spot, and her body stayed as stiff as a board, with her fists clenching and her face growing stern. _She and that man are the only ones here wearing headdresses matching the descriptions_… _I don't think we need to look any further for the culprits._

"…So if you could please take us to your leader, I believe we can possibly settle this without any more fighting, and prosecute the culprit."

"Fine," their young man said, "I will take you to King Moke."

"May I get your names?" Jian asked.

"My name is Prince Kekoa, and this is my sister Princess Kai." Kai nodded in their direction, maintaining the same nervousness from before. They turned and began walking the direction to the water tribe village, however Jian began to speak and stopped the prince in his tracks.

"Just to let you know, your island pledged its loyalties to the Fire Nation decades ago and has been an excellent resource for the mainland in terms of food. Because of your loyalty since then we have allowed your family to maintain its status among your people. However, if we find any reason to question your allegiance from these attacks, we will not hesitate to burn your little island to the ground."

And there it was, the statement of the true intentions of them coming to the island, and immediately all of the water benders tensed up. While Jeong was happy that his brother was showing some restraint about the matter, he knew that Jian's patience could only last so long, and their men were itching for a good fight. This was going to be a bloody and fiery slaughter. Now the only question was when it will begin.

"Come," Kekoa said in a solemn voice, leading the way forward with his sister following close behind him. Jeong walked ahead of everyone else, and stayed closest to the siblings, and they weaved their way through the thick vines. He could've sworn he heard Kekoa whisper to his sister, "How could you have been so careless?"


	2. Chapter 2: True Intentions

Chapter 2: True Intentions

"How much longer are these savages going to make us wait?" Jian exclaimed. His impatience kept on getting fiercer, and when he threw down his fists, trails of fire went along with them. They had been waiting outside a large pair of wooden doors in a little clearing for a couple of hours now. Jeong was becoming so hot from the humidity that he could feel his under-armor sticking to his skin when he moved. He could understand the frustration, but losing his level-headiness was the last thing he wanted to do.

"Calm yourself brother, they are probably just making arrangements to give us the proper kind of welcoming, we don't want to act too rash when we go in there."

"I understand what you are saying, but we can all tell that they are already the culprits. Can't you just feel the hatred of the Fire Nation here? I say we march in there and kill their king while they are caught off guard."

"I doubt they will be that unprepared. I have the feeling they have a lot more numbers than what we saw today in the woods. We are going to need reinforcements."

Jian shook his head at that comment. "From where? We are at the edges of the Fire Nation Territory, it will take too long for reinforcements to come without interfering with any other campaigns," Jian's words were interrupted when Kekoa came in through the doors.

"We are ready for you Commander Jian, Captain Jeong Jeong," He held the door open behind him, and allowed Jian, Jeong, and their entourage to follow.

The hall they were lead into was huge with light grey trunks of trees imbued in the walls, and the branches and vines weaved into the ceiling. In between the branches and trunks, rays of light leaked in, making the room bright with the sun. There were small waterfalls coming through cut outs in the trunks, flowing into geometric patterns on the floor, with the two biggest streams outlining the path they were walking on, a constant source of water for the benders. Standing in between the patterns, were hundreds of the members of their tribe, about ten times the amount of men they ran into earlier. Jeong could tell this was only a small fraction of their population, and confirmed his thoughts that when the battle started, they would definitely need reinforcements for their band of about forty men.

"Welcome to our island Commander Jian, Captain Jeong Jeong. I hope that my son has been hospitable enough for you." Sitting on bright plush pillows, a few stair levels above them was King Moke, a fierce looking man with a thick beard and even thicker, stocky body. His headdress was larger than both Kai's and Kekoa's combined, light blue, and spread out like an angry peacock-fish. Princess Kai sat in a spot to his right, and the prince took his seat to the left as they approached the King.

"Let's get to the point here shall we?" Jian ordered his brother to stand beside him, and the other troops to stay in formation from behind, just for extra protection in case their enemies decided to ambush them at that moment.

While his brother rambled on, explaining why they were there once again, Jeong's eyes slowly scanned over to the water tribe princess. Sitting next to her father and comrades, she looked all the more confident and prideful of her stature, convinced that they would defend her should she be accused of the crime. Jeong noticed that she also looked extremely beautiful. Her blue eyes stood out among her brown skin and dark, long hair. Her oval shaped face seemed like the perfect fit for her other features, especially a full pair of lips. The garment that she was wearing had one shoulder and seemed to lie perfectly on her brea-

"What are you staring at firebender!?" Jeong flinched, caught off guard that Kai would call him out like that during such an important meeting. Everyone's eyes were now on him, and he could feel the flames of embarrassment on his face. He bowed towards her in the politest fire nation way.

"My apologies princess," and he once again focused his attention back on the king and Jian, who was smirking at him, and winked before he resumed his talking. Jeong knew that he brought that upon himself and stood there feeling like an idiot. He had always hated the way his mind wandered after being away from home and not seeing a woman for months. He couldn't help but be flustered at this rare gem, after his closer observance of her, she really did stand out among the women he has seen.

"King Moke, as you can see, all of the evidence points to someone from this island, and the Firelord has ordered us to take care of the problem," Jian said.

"Well what do you propose to do general?" King Moke asked. His temples were flaring, insulted by the bold statement.

"I came here hoping to solve this problem diplomatically," Jian flat-out lied, "but one of the major questions is, why did your waterbenders attack us on sight? I mean I think it's pretty obvious that we are Fire Nation Soldiers, and the fact that you attacked us…your rulers… is a reason for us to accuse you of treason."

Everyone in the room stayed silent, and the only sound that came through the room was the flowing water. Finally Kekoa took water from the closest stream, turned it into a spear and pointed it to the firebenders. Everyone else either copied or pulled out other weapons, while the group of firebenders behind Jian and Jeong took their stance and prepared to fight. Both Jeong and Jian put up their hands, yielding to the water benders before them.

"Wait a minute, let's not act rash here. If you kill us now an even bigger force of soldiers will be here to crush you soon enough. At the very least, let's have a proper and honorable battle. If you win, we promise to leave your island and never bother you again," Jian claimed.

"Father, don't listen to him! He's lying!" Kekoa said. After that statement, Kai and all of the waterbenders began yelling their opinions to the king. It was chaotic, and even Jeong became overwhelmed with what was going on.

"SILENCE!" King Moke stood up and screamed over everyone, making the room quiet once again.

"We will meet you in battle, and that is that. Leave my hall you fire nation dogs," he sat back down calmly, with the scorns of both Kai and Kekoa upon him.

Jian didn't say a word, and solemnly walked out of the room with his men following him. Once they were out of earshot Jian leaned over to whisper into his brother's ear.

"Fine, once this is done, we will send a hawk to the Boiling Rock, asking for more troops." _Good call_, Jeong thought.

"I'm proud, you showed a lot of restraint back there. Although I do think it was a dirty move of how you straight out accused them of treason. But, I'm glad we drew them out and are actually fighting them in battle," Jeong said.

Jian stopped and turned to his brother with a stern look.

"Don't act like this is a good thing Jeong. I know that we need reinforcement troops, but you don't understand the severity our failure today. We will be seriously reprimanded by our superiors when they figure out we didn't handle this situation differently. We couldn't even walk out with the one responsible for General Li's murder." He sharply turned in disgust, leaving Jeong bewildered by his brother's unnatural outburst. _When did he become so serious about his job?_ Jeong reluctantly followed his brother, and together they prepared for battle.

After everyone left the room except for the Prince and King, Kai closed the doors in the hall, making sure they had the privacy to talk. She immediately twisted around and began to scold her brother.

"What in the world were you thinking Kekoa? Bringing out your spear, when it could have been settled differently!" She accused.

"What are you talking about! This is all your fault! You were the one who led the men into attacking them in the forest! And on top of that, you weren't careful enough when it came to the assassinations, I can't believe you let that general's wife see you…how sloppy! The other warriors were even better at their jobs than their princess."

Kai fumed as her brother bullied her. "It wasn't intentional Kekoa! She was supposed be sleeping next to him…" The event that night was completely unplanned for. Once Kai noticed that his wife wasn't in bed with him, she thought she could kill him fast enough before she came back. Kai bolted out of the house once the wife screamed, and tried to leave as discreetly as possible before the Ember Island guard was called. That was her last kill in the tribe's string of attacks.

"Enough of your bickering you two, you are both at fault for being too careless during this situation. Right now we need to come up with a plan to win this battle."

Kai wanted to talk back, her father didn't really make the best decision either. If anything his decision made it worse, because both Kai and Kekoa knew the fire nation troops were going to call for reinforcements. If they had killed them immediately, they would have at least had time to call on allies from the Northern Water Tribe or the Earth Kingdom, or to flee. Kekoa approached their father and bowed down on his knees.

"I volunteer to take myself and some men to take out their leader. With the proper tactics incorporating our own landscape we should be able to take them."

"You lack the advanced waterbending skills to take on their leader, did you see them all bending earlier? They are all extremely talented, and I bet their reinforcements will be even more so," his sister retorted.

"I think he is capable enough Kai."

There he went, showing favoritism for his oldest son. It has been clear since they were young that Kai showed superior skills in waterbending, but because of her gender and her young age of nineteen, their father always preferred Kekoa. She had to think of a different way to prove her self.

"Fine, I want to take out Captain Jeong Jeong. Jian may be the leader, but I have the feeling the captain is the brain behind some of this. Taking him out will be a huge blow to their army, and will turn the battle in our favor," Kai began making a punching motion with her hands. "Plus, I want to punish him for staring at me so openly like that."

"Oh shut up, you should be happy a man is even _staring_ at you," he began poking his sister in the arm. She jerked his arm down, before getting in a mock fight.

"Not when that man is from the Fire Nation," they both kept on laughing before their father interrupted again.

"So it's settled then, you will each take out their major officers," He opened the doors ahead of him and sighed heavily, rubbing his forehead, "we will strategize about this more tomorrow." As he walked outside Kai looked at her brother and then back to her father, saddened to see the great man they once knew, wither away into the distance.


	3. Chapter 3: The Battle

Chapter 3: The Battle

Jian and his men stood on the shores of the island, making a proper welcoming formation for the ship approaching them. It has been a week since the little skirmish with the water tribe, and the men were excited to see whom the Fire Nation sent to aid them in battle.

"Hey Jeong, did they ever say who they were sending to help us?"

"No, the hawk they sent back just said that a navy ship of 1000 men was nearby, and is taking a detour from their original mission," Jeong replied.

Jian's head sunk. "_1000 men_? Isn't that a bit excessive? Ugh, It must be someone important, that's 25 times of the amount of men we have...yep we are definitely in trouble if they have sent someone with that much power." Jian was right, this person was going to take control of their mission the second they landed on shore.

As the reinforcements got closer, Jeong was surprised to see that it was an Empire-class battleship, and even more surprised to see who walked out of the ship and down the ramp.

"General Iroh!" They both said, followed by a low bow.

"I have to say, I wasn't expecting you to join us for this General," Jian said, "surely you have other priorities other than helping us with this small matter."

"From the urgency of your letter I would say that this is more than a small matter," Iroh replied.

"Please forgive our failure in this mission General Iroh," Jeong said. Iroh just gave him a friendly smile, then began laughing

"Please stop with the formalities! Especially you captain I have known you for years!" He walked to Jeong and gave him a firm pat on the back.

Ever since his father, Jeong Huojin, came up with the strategy to wipe out the Air Nomads, and personally oversaw the destruction of the Western Air Temple, his family had gained a lot of prestige and became one of the most powerful families in the Fire Nation, and along with that prestige came closeness to the royal family. Jeong had known Iroh since they were teenagers, and only a few years separated their age.

"Really it's quite alright, when I first received your letter I was actually heading north, and had stopped at the Boiling Rock to turn in some war prisoners from the Earth Kingdom. You have been under-manned and I will gladly help you here."

"May I ask why you were heading north General?" Jeong asked.

Iroh moved his hands, urging Jian and Jeong to come closer, away from the rest of the men.

"I'm heading to the Ancient City of the Sun Warriors right after this, since it's right to the south." He mischievously smiled.

"With 1000 men sir? Last time I checked that city has been dead for thousands of years, I doubt you need an army." Jain chuckled.

"I plan to take a small group of men with me onto land, and then once I reach the actual city, I'm going in alone." At this point he began to whisper.

"There have been rumors of dragons living on that island, it's past time for me to claim glory in slaying one." Since Firelord Sozin's decree of letting firebenders hunt dragons for glory, they were thought of as nearly extinct. A man following the word of mouth to dragons wasn't uncommon, and no one had claimed that they killed the last dragon yet. Jeong was happy that his friend had the opportunity now; after all his feats in the Earth Kingdom he deserved the honor of the name _Dragon._

"But, I'm not here to talk about slaying dragons," he marched in between Jeong and Jian, towards the base camp further down the shore, "please show me the strategies you have laid out, and let's get this battle underway!" He suddenly stopped and turned his head around with a smile.

"But before we start do you have any ginseng tea? It's my favorite."

Jeong stared at the dead bodies lying around him, one of the most sickening sights he had seen, a mixture of both his men and members of the water tribe. Blades of water killed many of the men, from cuts slitting across the chests and throats. Their blood sat calmly on top of the muddy soil. Still, more men were killed from fires burning through their armor and being consumed by flames. The fires continued to burn the surrounding vegetation uncontrolled.

Jeong was assigned to take out the troops around the main camp where the King resided. This way, the path was carved for his brother and general Iroh to make the final blow later on in the battle. He bent down to one of the water tribe warriors, and put his hand on the body.

"You put up a good fight," he closed his eyes and honored the fallen soldier. Jeong stood up, and contemplated what to do next, when he noticed that the smoke covered sky above became even darker, signaling the right time to retreat before more waterbenders came back to attack with the power of the moon.

"Head back to the camps men! We will attack the western section tomorrow!" The few men who survived the battle immediately began jogging back and Jeong stayed on their heels, but a little rustle from the bushes beside him stopped his tracks. Allowing his men to keep on running forward, Jeong turned around to find the water tribe princess approaching him, with the same look in her eyes when they first met. Jeong wasn't surprised to see Kai as his only opponent left in this battle.

"Just to let you know, I stared at you because I think you are one of the most beautiful women I have seen," Jeong readied his stance for battle, "If anything this shows how different our cultures are. It's not an insult to a woman's honor if a man stares on the mainland."

"Aw, how sweet. I appreciate the compliment," and she prepared her own stance, "but like you said, I can't let such an insult to my honor stand. You won't think I look so pretty once the blood begins to cloud your sight."

Faster than he could look, Kai bended two blades of water straight at him. Jeong tried to stop it with his bending, but all he could do was dodge by leaning backwards. At first he didn't feel it, but when he straightened up, he felt the cool air stinging his face and warm blood run down the side, dripping over his eyelid. _She wasn't kidding, _he thought.

"You move quickly for a firebender," she yelled in between her relentless water whips. With every single one of her blows, Jeong broke them up with his circles of fire, causing bunches of steam to float in the air. He noticed that Kai drew her water from the dew covered plants and the tiny streams flowing throughout the ground. Thinking that he could slow her down or stop her bending completely, he progressively moved backwards as he bended, moving the fight to where she would have no water: one of the little clearings that had burned away from the battle earlier. Once they were in the clearing Kai stopped bending and stood up straight, realizing her resources were gone.

"You can't fight without your waterbending. Surrender now!" He made one last stance to shoot if she fought any further, but Kai remained in her spot and just smirked. She then shot her arms above her head, making a giant wave of water almost twenty feet high, and began to push her arms forward to pour the wave on him. Jeong switched his position and circled his arms up, creating a wall of fire almost double the height, and overshadowing the wave in width. _Where did all that water come from, _he thought.

Things stayed calm. Assuming that Kai had stopped her attack, Jeong took a second to breath and held his position with his wall.

"Are you ready to surrender now?" He yelled through the roaring flames. For a moment he heard nothing, but as he tried to listen beyond the flames for Kai's voice, he instead heard the flow of water as if it were sitting in a big jug. His eyes jerked up to see that his wall of fire had been surpassed in size with water.

"Ha! No!" She pushed the wall forward, causing an explosion of steam and knocking Jeong to the ground. When he sat up, he couldn't see anything but clouded surroundings, and because of the hissing from steam, he couldn't tell what Kai was doing. He quickly stood up and turned in a circle in his stance. All he could see were the reflections from the surrounding fire. They seemed to make illusions of Kai's face and body moving all around him, and whenever he heard the simple breaking of a twig, he wildly shot fire in that direction thinking he could hit her. He then remembered the fortune-teller's words _don't be blinded by illusion_. He heard the swishing of water heading toward him, but by then it was too late. The string of water was bended into a large, compact ball of ice and slammed Jeong in the ribs, knocking him down and making him curl up on the ground. Kai came up and stood over him, with one blade of water, ready to strike.

"Brother! Get up! We have won! Prince Kekoa has been slain and King Moke has surrendered haha!" Jeong looked passed Kai's legs and saw General Iroh and Jian riding over the clearing on Komodo rhinos. He also noticed that Kai was distracted, looking at them with a shocked look on her face from the news. Now was his chance. Jeong kicked at Kai's foot making her lose balance and fall over. He crawled over and grabbed her wrists to prevent her bending, and after a small wrestling match on the ground, he straddled her on her back, holding her wrists behind her. When he looked up from the struggle, he saw that the small forest fires in the clearing had spread, and all the land around him was burned down and covered in black soot.

"Impressive right?" Jian yelled, "we burned a path from the shore right to their main camp while you cleared the path for us. Thanks for starting that fire in the clearing Jeong! Now someone grab some chains so we can tie up their princess. Ha, she almost bested a firebending master! We don't want her fighting back."

Jeong loosened his grip on Kai's hands, noticing her tension from battle was gone. "I don't think we have to worry about that," he said solemnly, as he felt Kai heave from her silent crying. When he looked down in her dark blue eyes, all of the light from their previous encounters, had disappeared.


	4. Chapter 4: Pai Sho Tiles

Chapter 4: Pai Sho Tiles

Jeong limped down the hallway towards Kai's cell, and winced with every step he took. The impact from her ice ball had broken several of Jeong's ribs and he could only see out of one eye, with bandages covering the right side of his face from her other attack. The general had ordered him to go down and interrogate Kai, and maybe get more information on why she carried out her assassinations. King Moke barely talked, and using him as a suspect was useless.

When he approached her cell, Kai was leaning against the wall, and didn't even move when she saw Jeong approaching.

"I'm here to question you Kai, we need more information in order to prosecute you fairly." One of the good things about Iroh coming to help, was his mercy in dealing with prisoners of war. With the severity of their crimes, most other generals would've had them executed on the spot, or have them sent immediately to the Boiling Rock.

"It's Princess Kai to you," she said hoarsely. She turned her face into the light, and Jeong could tell that she had been crying the entire three days she was down there. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her face and hair were dirty from not washing since her arrest. Her headdress still sat on her head though, with each feather perked up seemingly untouched.

"You don't hold that title anymore, not after your people decided to rebel." Jeong replied, "now you may get a smaller sentence if you tell us exactly why you murdered those generals."

"We were poor…" she quietly said.

"Poor? What do you mean by that? Your island has some of the best resources for the Fire Nation."

She stood up and pointed her finger through the metal bars at Jeong. "Yes, those are the key words, _for the Fire Nation_. You take so much from our island that we barely have enough to survive ourselves. Everyday someone dies of starvation or sickness," she took a deep breath to calm herself. "An Earth Kingdom General named Sung offered us a lot of money and trade goods if we carried this out," some tears began to stream down her face, "It was the only way we could keep on living." Jeong decided to stop talking about this issue, for he had enough knowledge already, and for some reason seeing her upset, upset him in turn.

"Fine…that's all," he began to turn away, but remembered he had one more thing to ask her before he departed.

"When you were fighting me yesterday, and I had brought you to the clearing, where did you get the water from?"

"Did you feel the humidity in the air that day? There was so much water I could draw from it's almost unbelievable. I even took some of the moisture out from the surrounding plants."

Jeong smiled, fascinated by how clever waterbenders could be. "Wow, impressive. One of the beauties of waterbending and the water tribes, is how many sources you can draw from. I bet you could even bend my own blood if you wanted to…"

"No. I actually know how to show restraint."

Jeong sensed hostility in her voice. "What do you mean by that?"

Kai moved her face closer, and wrapped her hands around the bars. "I love how you are standing here telling me how much you, _appreciate_, waterbending, when you and the rest of the fire nation dogs kill and destroy all the cultures and people that have the ability to do it. You, and your soldiers, and your fires show no restraint, and your fires are covering the world just as quickly as your fires covered my island and my brother. It all parallels. Soon everything will be destroyed by your culture and firebending," she stepped back the bars and looked at Jeong with disdain.

"So yes, I guess you could say that there is a beauty in our bending, because we naturally show restraint. Water is soothing and flows, earth stays steady and stable, but fire…fire is alive and it breaths and it grows, without the bender, a rock will not throw itself, nor will water turn itself to ice in less than a second. But fire will spread, and will destroy everything in its path, even without the control of a bender." She paused, and he could feel the hatred from her stare, "That Captain Jeong Jeong, is the beauty of firebending."

When she finished, she moved back into the darkness of her cell, and sat down with her back facing Jeong. He stood there for a moment, shocked. In all his years of firebending, while he did believe in discipline and control, he had never heard such a disheartening and painful interpretation. He stepped back from her cell, and slowly moved towards the exit to report Kai's reasoning, and to catch up with his brother and General Iroh in convictions of the rebels. However, everything Kai said was etched into his mind, and he wasn't sure if he could focus on the task that lay ahead of him.

"Jeong! What news did you receive from the princess? Since you two like each other so much I thought that you would be the one to get the most information from her," Jian winked after he said that statement. Both he and General Iroh were sitting around a table with a large fire insignia and hot tea sitting in front of them. At the other end of the room Moke was held up by two guards, his head hanging so low that his headdress had flipped down, and the feathers sprawled out to the floor.

"Moke here hasn't said a word since his surrender," Iroh said, "so yes, what did Kai say?"

"She said…" Jeong still couldn't focus away from her firebending statement, "she told me that General Sung from the Earth Kingdom commissioned her people to do it, in return for money and food."

"Wow, he even got names," Jian said to Iroh, then chuckled, "what exactly did you do down there hmm?"

Jeong didn't like the way his brother joked about Kai, "She was very distraught, and I told her that the sentences might come off easier if she told us why they did the assassinations, that's all."

Jian put his hands up. "Okay, okay brother calm down….seesh. General Iroh, what do you think we should do with the prisoners?"

"Hmmm," Iroh stroked his short beard, "I don't think we have a choice, they did commit a very treasonous act. Moke will have to be sent to prison, and more than likely Firelord Azulon will sentence Kai to death." Jeong felt his stomach sink like a destroyed battleship.

"Please," A muffled sound slipped from Moke.

"Men, lift him up!" The two soldiers pulled Moke's massive arms back, causing his head to sit up straight.

"Please…don't kill her," his face turned to Jeong and his eyes began to tear up, "you know, you fought with her and saw the spirit in her. She's too talented, young and fierce to have it all taken away from her now." He paused and swallowed a huge lump in his throat, and looked back to the generals.

"I offer this to you …my life in exchange for hers. While my daughter did carry out the deed, I was the one who accepted the mission for my people, and the responsibility falls completely on my shoulders," his head sunk again in despair.

Iroh took a sip of his tea, contemplating what Moke just said, "I think Firelord Azulon will be satisfied with someone being killed…fine I accept your request." Moke sat his head up, this time smiling, and tears of joy falling down his face.

"It's settled then," Jian stood up in his spot, "Men! Take Moke to his jail cell, from there we will transfer him to another ship, and take him to the capital to await his execution." The men struggled to drag Moke's massive body down to the dungeon.

"Now what should we do with the princess?" Jian said, sitting back down as if he were exhausted. "We could take her to the Boiling Rock, it's the maximum security prison in our nation, they could keep her down…"

Jeong smirked then shook his head, "The jailors would have too much trouble keeping her restrained. She can find her water to bend from just about anywhere, even the vapor in the air. Considering all the steam from the volcano there, that's not a good idea."

"Haha, you're right about that, every day there will be complaints of men ending up like you, brother."

Jeong tried to laugh, but the crippling pain from his injury prevented him.

"But we can't just let her go, she's too dangerous for that," Iroh said, continuing to stroke his beard. An idea filled Jeong's head, but he was almost too nervous to even say it.

"She can…come back home and stay with me. That way she can be…closely watched and…monitored." Both Jian and Iroh raised their eyebrows in surprise.

"Are you saying you're willing to vouch for her pardon Jeong?" Iroh inquired.

"She can be pardoned at this point?" Jian asked.

"Possibly," Iroh's eyes scanned Jeong, "you seem to have some sort of affection for the girl."

"Ooohhhhh," Jian replied.

"Just…you heard Moke's plea General. I happen to agree with him. She's clever and resourceful. A very powerful bender. Surely we can put her to some use in the capital. Maybe as a source of intel."

Iroh stood up and approached Jeong, speaking lowly. "I'm willing to put something different in the report for you. Pull some strings. Instead of her being the murderer I'm can say she was just an innocent bystander. Forced to do the wills of her brother and father. I can also say she promised to give up all of her assets. She will become a Fire Nation citizen, since she will be abandoning her old life. However, this deal doesn't leave this room, understand?"

"That's…kind of you General, but why would you do this for me?"

"A favor for a friend. A favor that I might have to count on you to return later on…"

Jeong wasn't sure he liked the position Iroh put him in. What kind of friend uses their friend for their own political gains? _Kai's life is at stake, don't be selfish, _Jeong thought.

"Yes…I understand sir."

Iroh nodded and moved back to his seat. "Where do you intend to keep the girl when you get back to mainland? I doubt your father will just want her in your estate, especially as a mistress."

They kept the moment in silence, and then smiles spread on both of their faces.

"HA! Don't sugar coat it Iroh! I think he should just marry the girl! With the pardon you are arranging for her she should still maintain her standing correct? And that way no one can question her motives or presence in the capital. The ultimate voucher!"

Iroh nodded and stroked his beard, "It will be an empty title, but she can still be a princess in name."

"Oh look at him blush! I knew my brother was in love! Iroh, hand over that Pai Sho tile you bet on earlier!"

"Aww," Iroh reached in his pockets, pulled out a tile, and slid it across the table to Jian, "that one always helped me win, now what am I going to do?" Jeong blushed, and felt embarrassed that he even suggested taking Kai home.

"Do you agree to those terms Captain?" Iroh asked.

"O-of course sir. One hundred percent sir." His heart fluttered, but he understood that this was all a ploy; Kai would be virtually a prisoner in his home. Still, something about having her near all the time excited him.

"This actually works out perfectly, out of the three of us, you are the only one not married." He spoke the truth, Iroh had a wife back in the capital, and he had recently gotten news that she was several months pregnant with their first child. Jian was also married, with his wife at home taking care of their young, and sickly daughter. Jeong has had many opportunities to get married, but his parents decided against an arranged marriage out of the fear of having more weak grandchildren, and he never found the _right one._ Kai had something in her that Jeong couldn't resist. His decision felt right.

"We need to begin preparations! I can't believe that my younger brother is getting married," Jian got a sneaky look in his eyes, stood up and headed toward the exit, "I'm going to the kitchens, to have something a little stronger than tea, hehe. Jeong, Iroh! Be sure to come join me!" he yelled as he walked out of the room.

"I'm right behind you!" Iroh yelled after him. Jeong decided not to follow. While he wanted to celebrate as much as his peers, and he was surprised they took it so well, his injuries made him too tired. Instead he moved towards the other exit, and started to his bedroom.

"Jeong, if you could please hold on a moment. I have one last thing." Iroh walked over and moved his body directly next to Jeong's.

"It's a good thing I didn't bet my _last_ White Lotus Tile," he said in a low voice. He took Jeong's hand and placed the rare tile in his palm, " This is for your decision tonight. Just realize it's more than just a game. The White Lotus opens wide to those who know her secrets." He walked away from Jeong, and followed the same path Jian made down to the kitchens while waving. "Your actions on the island have also earned you a request for promotion! Haha, good night Captain!"

Jeong stood there for a moment, staring down at the ornate design in the middle of his hand, contemplating Iroh's mysterious comment.


	5. Chapter 5: The Wedding

Chapter 5:

Kai reached up and scratched at one of her golden hairpieces buried in her hair. For the wedding ceremony her feather headdress had been stored away in the Jeong Estate, and was replaced by a large golden rods and ornate beads weaved into her hair. Unlike her feathers, which just sat on her head, these hairdressings tugged at her scalp, and caused a lot of pain.

"Get that sour look off your face Kai. You look hungry, here have a cookie!" Jeong said, loosely leaning towards her. For the past two hours, he had been drinking, and was so perky during the meal it got on Kai's nerves. She pushed the cookie away.

"Do you have anything of substance to eat? You know something like, meat? That isn't spicy?" All they had to eat in the Fire Nation were noodles, lychee nuts, and vegetables, all of which had hot spices added to them. On top of that, even their sweets were spicy, like their fire gummies, fire cakes, and even flaming fire flakes.

"Maybe some sort of bird? I swear if I eat one more food that starts with the name fire, I'm going to vomit all over my dress…"

"Aww, please don't do that, it looks so nice on you." He smiled widely and then turned back to talking to his brother. _Well thanks for forgetting, _she face-palmed, thinking that she was just going to remain hungry and nauseous.

"Um, hello. I'm here to present a gift to you," a quiet voice said. Kai looked up and tried hard to remember the young woman's name.

"Yes, your name is…Ursa right?" Ursa was a teenager, several years younger than Kai. She noticed that her parents were standing nearby, watching how she presented herself to the new bride.

"Yes…well I just wanted to give you this," some people brought up a feather headdress that looked just like her old one, except with the colors of red, gold, white, and small golden phoenixes woven into the headband. Kai picked it up, almost shaking from her excitement.

"Wow, thank you Ursa," she turned it around observing every intricate detail.

"You're welcome. I made it myself. I know that its feathers aren't genuine peacock-fish feathers, but I was just hoping that this would help you adjust to things here, and have something to remind you of home." Kai almost cried, she had only been displaced from her home a month ago, and it was extremely difficult getting used to things here so quickly. She was really impressed by Ursa's gesture.

"I think this is my favorite gift so far, thanks again Ursa."

Ursa bowed and then backed away to her parents, and eventually into the crowd of people, many of which were unfamiliar to Kai.

One of the few good things Jeong did for Kai when she came to the mainland was tell her who the important people were, or at least the ones that she needed to remember. The severe looking man with white hair pulled back so tight that it seemed to stretch out his face, was Jeong Huojin, the one known for taking out the Airbenders. Standing next to him was his wife and Jian and Jeong's mother, Lady Rou, a round-faced, short woman, who always walked around smiling and laughing. Standing across from them was a tired-looking General Iroh and his very pregnant wife, Bian. Apparently Iroh had a brother, a young man named Ozai, but he didn't come to the wedding because he was halfway across the world, doing a traditional search for the Avatar. Not many others in the crowd stood out to her, all of these people looked the same with their dark hair pulled back, pale skin, and dynamic amber eyes. While Ursa's gift made her feel better temporarily, these differences were going to take a long time to get used to. She looked up to the sky to see a full moon shining down on her wedding, closed her eyes, and felt the power and comfort from its glow.

Following his brother Jian down the dimly lit hallway, Jeong hooked Kai's arm in his. He couldn't tell if she was just nervous or overly exhausted, but he could feel Kai's body faintly shaking next to his. For the consummation night, they used a different room than Jeong or Kai's original bedrooms. This one had red candles lit everywhere for light, and a gigantic crimson bed with a sheer canopy sat in the middle of the room. Since Jeong was still slightly buzzed, all the colors and smells were dizzying. However, he had to suck it up in order to be a good lover to Kai, and didn't want to ruin an evening that had gone so well with his own ineffectiveness.

"Well…good luck to you two," Jian snickered as he closed the door behind him. Jeong stood there for a moment hoping that he and Kai could talk a little before they got on with their act. Instead, she walked away from him, and sat on the side of the bed to begin the endless process of taking down her hair, with a long frown on her face. Jeong sat down beside her, and put her hand on her leg, only to have her jerk away immediately and move to the other side of the room.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled, turning towards him so fast some of her hairpieces fell to the floor.

"Why not? You're my wife now. You should be happy and thankful to me for keeping you out of the Boiling Rock."

She just stood there with her arms crossed and frowning, and she couldn't deny that Jeong vouching for her was her last and only chance at freedom.

"No, you just used this _marriage_ as an excuse to keep me as your personal prisoner. I could probably fight my way out of the Boiling Rock, but what can I do when I'm surrounded by the _big guys_ themselves?"

"No, I actually um…" Jeong said.

"Actually what…have feelings for me? Well let me say this, if you know what's good for you, you will keep those feelings bottled in, because I can tell you right now, I _hate_ you."

Ouch, Jeong actually felt that in the depths of his chest, but he couldn't let Kai see his hurt. Instead he chose to turn the subject to something else, and stood up to move inches away from Kai.

"Hm. I know what's going on here, you're scared," he took one step closer to her, so close that he could feel the heat on her body.

"Scared of what? The Fire Nation Big Guys? Because I can tell you that's definitely not true. I hate you, this place and the fire nation."

"No you're scared of right now, and what we need to do tonight. Honestly if you are worried about the pain," he placed his hands on her hips, "I promise, I know how to be gentle."

Kai's brow furrowed, and her arms shot up in a bending position. Jeong suddenly lost control of his hands, and his wrists contorted to the point where they were almost flipped all the way over. He realized that Kai could choose to bloodbend, and she was using the painful method on him.

"I told you...don't touch me," and with that she pushed him onto the bed and away from her.

"Also if you think I'm embarrassed by sex, you're sadly mistaken there too," she took a few steps back from the bed, and began untie the belts that were holding up her dress. Each silk layer quickly slid off of her, and fell down around her feet until she stood in front of Jeong completely naked. She was teasing him, and unfortunately Jeong fell for it. He couldn't help but become aroused in her small-framed body, and stared at everything from her long neck, to her soft looking breasts and torso, and in between and down her lean legs. She just smiled at him, and then abruptly turned around to grab a night robe hanging on the hook. When she showed her back, Jeong was shocked by what he saw. A deep scar covering from her right shoulder to the top of her bottom, ruined the beauty of her back.

"That scar…did you get it from battle?"

"Not a battle from a human," she replied, while putting on the robe and tying it tightly. She strode over to the opposite side of the bed, furthest away from Jeong and went under the covers.

"What does that mean?" He stood up and began to change himself, saddened that he wasn't even going near Kai tonight.

"You wouldn't understand. Now good night husband."

He climbed into bed across from her.

"And remember don't touch me, or else I promise I won't hold back with the bloodbending." Jeong decided to obey her. While he still thought waterbending was extremely resourceful and clever, bloodbending was too painful to handle, and frightening. It took a long time for him to fall asleep.

Kai woke up to the sun shining on her face through the windows. Not sleeping well last night, she decided to go ahead and get up, hoping it will help her relax. She looked over to a sleeping Jeong, who had stayed on his side of the bed all night. _Hm, looks like I made my point_, Kai grinned to herself as she took a minute to observe Jeong's face. She thought he was handsome enough, being some years older than her she could see the stresses in his face from war, with the fresh scars she gave him adding to his rugged look. His long mustache and goatee framed the bottom of his face nicely, and when his hair was down from his topknot, it fell down to his shoulders, black and wavy.

She crawled out of bed, put on another thick, dark red robe, and sprinted out of the bedroom to explore the estate. For the past few weeks while she has been here, she confined herself in her room, not wanting to interact much with the fire nation inhabitants. However, as she walked out the hallway and into a common room, two servants standing by bowed and said, "Lady Kai, we are at your service," and she thought _Lady Kai?_ _I can get used to this. _

"Yes, could you please prepare me some fruit and tea…that isn't spicy please?"

"Of course my lady," and they bowed away and whisked off to the kitchens to meet her requests. While she waited, Kai noticed that across the room, a small bookshelf with some reading scrolls was sitting in the corner. She browsed over them, hoping to find something interesting to read other than the usual boring Fire Nation texts.

"So...how was my son last night? Will I have some more grandchildren soon?" Kai jumped, when she heard Lady Rou sneak up on her, smiling.

"Uh, he was okay I guess, and I don't know about anytime soon…" she replied to the awkward question.

"Oh that's sad, I would so like more grandchildren. Jian's poor little daughter is so sick that she couldn't even come to your wedding yesterday. It makes me so sad to see a child so helpless," she took a minute to contemplate to herself, "So please, the biggest gift you could give me and Huojin, are some healthy grandchildren," she turned around, and before leaving the room she made one more point.

"Oh and if you're looking for a good read, I highly suggest you read about the Legend of Xiomara, on the top shelf there, it's a classic," and she strolled out of the room.

"Okay," Kai said to herself, slightly nervous from the sudden disclosure from Lady Rou, "the Legend of Xiomara huh?" She took the scroll and unrolled it slightly to read the brief summary.

"The story of a displaced princess, who rose to become the first firebender and establish the glory of the Fire Nation, humph how ironic." She sat down grudgingly on a nearby bench thinking that this was just another narrative of Fire Nation Patriotism. She was entranced by the story for the rest of the day.


	6. Chapter 6: Unexpected Meetings

OTHER NOTE: Kekoa was the one who saved Kai from the angry peacock fish for her coming of age thing. He shot a spear of ice into the fish and pulled kai out of the water and immediately began healing her, they had been fighting a lot before then, but Kai was surprised to see her brother still come and help her, ever since then they were cool with each other

Chapter 6:

Commander Jeong Jeong held his arms up, while servants fit him into his new, updated uniform. General Iroh's request for his promotion had taken seven weeks to come through, and the second it did, his life became filled with meetings about everyone and everything. He had become the new commander of the northwestern region of the Fire Nation, and he needed to hurry if he wanted to make his war meeting on time and make a good impression.

"Hurry it up will you!" He fussed at the servants. They hastily finished his dressings, and after taking one last look at his reflection to see how he looked, Jeong rushed out of the room and into the hallway.

Servants and other visitors to the estate moved out of his way when he walked. He figured he must have had an angry look on his face by the way people were staring. _Who knew that being Commander would be so stressful? You would think I would have it easy being close to the top…. but nooooo. _Being commander wasn't the only thing he worried about. Rumors among the servants had begun to spread about how he and Kai were not getting along, and he couldn't even deny their truth. Five weeks they had been married, and Kai still was unwilling to warm up to her new life. As much as Jeong had showed her kindness, she acted spiteful in return, either flat out ignoring him or openly insulting him in front of his peers. At one dinner party, she openly mocked him and his fighting skills on the battlefield, insulting him and his brother on their battle strategies, making jokes about how easily they fell for her tactics. Some of the patrons laughed, but after the dinner, both his father and brother, insisting that she need to be reigned in, confronted Jeong about his honor as a man, one of the worst insults one can have.

On top of that, she still refused to touch him, which for Jeong was the most frustrating part. As those thoughts were passing through his mind, of course he would see his beloved Kai walking down the hallway, arms full with a bunch of scrolls.

"Do you need any help with those?" he offered a hand, knowing it was in vain.

"I'm perfectly fine," she continued to walk past, and as she did, he noticed the name of the scrolls she carried.

"The Legend of Xiomara huh?" Impressed with her choice of literature. "Well, it's nice to see that you're beginning to like things here," Jeong said, trying to be caring.

"Oh I still don't like it here," she snapped back, "I'm just curious about who this Xiomara is. Her legend was interesting enough and I'm just looking further into it so I won't be so _bored_ around here." With that she glared at Jeong and turned sharply on her heels, heading to the family reading room.

A pang of sadness went through him from her coldness, but by now he was almost used to it, and had to ignore it anyways; he was about to compete with men of more experience and stature, and he couldn't worry about his moody wife.

Walking out of the estate, a bright sun greeted him along with a small escort of his household guards. Getting to the palace only required a stroll of few hundred yards, but this beautiful day with the sun blazing caused the citizens of the capital to come out of their homes in abundance. He struggled through the groups of people, sometimes having to shove his way through. A household guard and the fact that he was commander should have been enough to make people clear out of the way, but word of Jeong's promotion had not reached everyone's ears. For now he stayed the unimportant nobleman.

Finally reaching the palace, the crowds of people had begun to clear out, and instead were replaced by noblemen in long red robes or armor showing their stature. Jeong relaxed when he saw he arrived just in time. Joining into the crowd of his fellow war council members, he filed into the palace, past the halls of portraits of previous firelords, and into the infamous war room.

His brother had told him about the magnificence of it, but Jeong could not believe it until he saw it. For the front of the room being covered by a row of fire, it stayed comfortably warm and calming. The black floor reflected every single detail of the ceiling. One of the most impressive things was the carved golden face of a dragon behind the firelord's throne, staring down at all of the men like ants. In the center of the room sat the famous map of the four nations, used for strategic meetings. Around the map were sitting pillows where all of the commanders, generals, and admirals were invited to sit.

Being the newcomer, Jeong sat at the far end of the map, whilst the others of higher rank and more experience sat closer to the firelord. His brother, who smiled and nodded in his direction when he saw him looking, occupied one of those spots. Sitting across from his brother was where General Iroh would typically sit. Due to his absence, Prince Ozai sat in his place, stern-faced and rigid as usual. Probably frustrated due to the fact he had recently come back without any news of the avatar. A common failure that most people who did the search had.

While he scanned the room, Jeong decided to take a look up in the direction of Firelord Azulon, just to catch a glimpse of him. His efforts were in vain, all of the flame covering the front of the room shrouded the firelord in a shadow. The only way he could be seen is if he got up and moved around, something the old man probably rarely did. Suddenly Jeong heard Firelord Azulon clear his throat, preparing to speak.

"Let us being this session," his rasp voice echoed across the room, "Admiral Li, you had a proposal about taking back some of our colonies?"

"Yes Firelord Ozai," Admiral Li, an older man well past his prime, stood up and grabbed a cane in order to move the pieces showing strategic points.

"As you know, recent resistances in this region of the Earth Kingdom have caused us to lose this colony." Moving the stick over to a ship piece, he pushed it around to a large river behind a colony in the northwestern portion of the map. Jeong's portion.

"In order to solve this issue, I propose we send in a large force to take the river, and proceed in retaking the region."

"We can't spare that many men right now," Admiral Cao, sitting across from Li argued, "our focus is in the center, with our long term campaign of taking Ba-Sing-Se. The rest of these minor regions are expendable!"

"Not true," Prince Ozai said calmly.

"If we let this region slide it gives the Earth Kingdom leave to attack our crescent islands. No. That can't be ignored."

"Good point Prince Ozai," Azulon said in approval, "What do you propose we do then?"

Ozai stood up, grabbing his own stick and moving pieces around the map.

"I agree with sending a force down this river, but a force that large? A waste of resources. A small stealthy force would do much better. They could get into the region undetected and take the city, stay there and root out any other threats in the area."

"And how long would that take my prince?" Admiral Li sat down, arms crossed, clearly defeated by Ozai's strategy.

"Probably several months if we want to…_root_ everything out." The way he said that was odd, as if the whole process might be pleasant.

"Several months of our resources being wasted," Li shook his head.

"Hold your tongue Admiral. Ozai, who do you think would be best suited for this job?"

"I vote General Jian, I feel as if his recent achievements in battle have proved him more than capable of doing this," he said in almost a mocking tone.

"Sorry my prince, I have already been assigned to focus on the main force south."

Jeong didn't like that, he hardly liked where this meeting was going, especially after his brother's eyes wandered onto him.

"How about Commander Jeong Jeong take my place instead? I feel he has more then proved his capabilities in our last campaign."

All eyes were on him, once again causing his nerves to build up.

"That's acceptable," the firelord agreed, "Commander Jeong Jeong? Do you agree to lead this campaign?"

Jeong stood up, then bowed to the firelord, "Yes I agree to these terms Firelord."

The rest of the meeting seemed like a blur to Jeong, for most of the things he was no longer relevant, with Ozai, Li, and Jian all going back and forth in their strategies. After the meeting had finished, Jeong's brother came up behind him and put an arm around his shoulders.

"Congratulations on your assignment brother!" He said cheerfully.

"Why did you volunteer for me?" Sounding frustrated, Jeong wrenched free from his brother.

"Why not? You were just promoted, now is as good a time as any to prove yourself." He slapped him on the back.

"You will be thanking me when _Commander Jeong Jeong_ comes back from months long campaign celebrated by everyone in the fire nation!" Obviously, Jian was exaggerating, but Jeong appreciated the sentiment nonetheless.

Great. He was going away on campaign for several months. He wondered how Kai would feel about it. Chucking to himself he said out loud, "She'd probably be happy."

"What brother?"

"Nothing Jian…nothing."

The one good thing about her husband's new promotion, was that he didn't fuss about Kai all day. His job made him stay out of the house or in the reading room going over documents about ships and what not. Boring things that Kai had no interest in. Usually by the end of the day he was too tired and fell right asleep when he got in bed.

She used her free time to read more of those scrolls about Xiomara, her favorite thing since she had been to the fire nation. Xiomara had everything she liked in a main character. Powerful, smart, and charismatic, Xiomara used these traits to tame the first dragon and learn its firebending. Some versions of the story say that she rode her first dragon, a large and black dreadnought-sized creature, over to the capital of the fire nation, and began burning down the lush vegetation so the city could be built in its place. Kai got excited whenever the story brought up the dragons. Even though the dragon was the animal patron for the fire nation, some of the legends from her tribe included wise and powerful dragons, often giving the hero advice or helping him in some hard task. The Sun Warriors island wasn't that far away from hers either, and rumors of dragons on that island always circulated among the warriors of her tribe. When she was young, she and her brother Kekoa would joke about going to the island and seeing some dragons, an unfortunate goal that could never be met. Not just because of her brother's death, but also because dragons were extinct due to fire nation hunts. Another dream the fire nation took away from her.

As Kai walked into the reading room, she looked around some shelves to see Jeong Huojin sitting at a desk, and fussing over some old dusty scrolls. Kai stepped back into the shadows nervous to run into the only man who ever intimidated her. When she was young, stories of this man's ruthlessness during the demise of the Airbenders were legendary, and were even used to scare little children. They certainly scared her.

"Stop hiding in the shadows water tribe girl. I can tell you are there." She jumped at his harsh voice, yet followed his commands and stepped out into the light

Kai didn't talk back, she knew that confronting this man probably wasn't the best idea.

"It seems you know when to keep your mouth shut. Good. You're finally learning some of the civilized ways." He stood up and walked away from the desk, stopping right in front of Kai. She kept her eyes down, knowing that if she looked up she would meet sharp eyes staring down at her.

"What is that you're carrying?" He commanded.

"Just some background information about Xiomara…sir."

"Hmph," he walked behind her toward the entrance.

"Just try not to damage them. Those scrolls are worth more than your island and the people on it put together."

She but her lip, trying to keep her composure from these man's comment. Several times since she has been here she ran into Huojin only to be met with ignorant insults. This man's reputation was the only thing that kept her from attacking him. She wanted to cause troubles for Jeong and avoid assimilating herself while here, not get herself killed.

After she heard the door close to the library, she finally exhaled and walked over to the reading desk to set down her scrolls. They rolled out all over the place taking over the entire top of the desk, some of them rolling over the side and onto the floor. _Whoops, I'm already damaging the things of more worth than me._ Kai chuckled, and calmly picked up the ones that fell. The first scroll she looked at was titled _The Legend of Xiomara's Helm, _a fairly thick scroll going over how she was born into the Sun Warrior's society and her famous helm was a valuable treasure, possibly still on the island for the taking.

Her thoughts went back to her brother's jokes, causing a tear to stream down her face. _If only you were still here, we might be able to seek this out…_

A sudden tightness arose in her chest causing her to heave and wheeze out her pain, echoes of her cries began reverberating around the room.

"I hate this place!" She slammed the scroll down.

"I hate Huojin for his insults, I hate Jian for murdering my brother, and I hate Jeong Jeong for even bringing me here! I hate EVERYTHING!" In the weeks she had been here she had never released her feelings like this. Kai hated herself for being so weak. She put her head down and continued to cry, muffling the sounds in her arms.

"Well surely you don't hate us that much my dear?" A soft voice said over some soft footsteps.

Kai looked up startled, only to see Lady Rou and Iroh's wife Bian coming into the room.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Bian said caringly, probably the most caring thing she heard since she got here. Talking to them might not seem so bad. They both grabbed chairs and put them next to Kai at the desk.

Taking a moment to compose herself Kai replied, "Yeah, actually. I would really like that."


	7. Chapter 7: Changes on the Homefront

The Desertion- Chapter 7

Jeong peered over the hillside through the tall blades of green-yellow grass. Several of his other team members lay in the grass near him, waiting for Jeong to give the signal to attack. Sitting ahead was the camp of the one last group of Earth Kingdom vigilantes troubling the region, all of them decent Earth Benders. It was early in the morning, all of the campers had just gotten up, and surrounded a fire while breakfast was prepared. By the way they moved, they were groggy from the previous night shifts and small rigorous battles from other fire nation troops.

Jeong loved this time of day. The sunrise was always a large source of power for firebenders, with it chasing away the moon and cold at night and bringing in the drastic change of heat and energy. A firebender's powers were prime at this time, and this gave Jeong and his troop the advantage in this fight. He raised his hand into a fist, ready to signal the others behind him to move.

They were going to approach this quickly, not letting the Earthbenders react or know what hit them. Finally, he pushed his fist forward, and his troops rushed up from behind and charged down the hill, trampling the grass and yelling battle cries. Jeong could feel the heat from the firebending as he stood up and joined his men in battle.

Even with the time of day, the earthbenders put up a good fight after quickly organizing themselves when they realized they were getting attacked. Jeong made a fire wave that took out a group of them before they could even strike with their earthbending, and some of his men followed his example. Others weren't so lucky. While their fireballs were powerful, they lacked control and often missed the targets, allowing an open spot for the earthbenders to strike and knock some his men out .

While Jeong took out a few more enemies with a round kick of fire, his attention focused to the center of the camp. He saw several of his troops getting thrown about the field with large rocks hitting them in their core or having half of their bodies sink into land. The one causing the trouble was the leader of the enemies. He wore thick dark green armor and a helm completely covering his face, with a long green plume reaching all the way down to his back. In order to take some of the pressure off his less experienced men, Jeong called for the leader's attention.

"HEY! Why don't you fight someone who's more of a challenge?" He called, causing the enemy's head to turn in his direction. His firebenders were smart enough to get the hint, and moved out of the way to allow Jeong to take control. They all shifted their attention to the remainder of the vigilantes.

"You their General Jian Jian?" The man said in a rough uncultured tone.

"_Commander_ _Jeong Jeong_. You are mistaking me for my brother. I'm here to punish you for your crimes of rebelling against the Fire Nation." Jeong couldn't help but feel angry that he was on another one of these missions, but for some reason he couldn't feel the same sympathy he did for Kai and her people. Their vigilance in fighting was admirable, but the Earth Kingdom had been their main enemies for so long it was sickening. He couldn't even count how many battles he had fought against them. While Jeong was usually an advocate for reservation of firebending, he wouldn't mind using everything he had to take these men out just to get his victory. _Anything to end this war and bloodshed sooner, I'm just so sick of it. _Jeong took his regular low stance, prepared for whatever his opponent might throw at him.

"My crimes?" the man snorted, "what about your crimes firebender? You're all the same! You come into our land and think you own it—"

"QUIET!" Jeong punched a fireball towards his opponent's feet, "let's just get this over with." He didn't want to hear it today. Ever since he talked to Kai in her jail cell over six months ago now, the thoughts about why the fire nation fought this war crept into his mind every single day. It was almost unbearable, and he didn't want anymore flack from this man right now.

"Haha, I like how you think," the man chuckled. He took his stance as well, putting his hand into the regular strong fists of his style. He remained quiet and still for a moment then made the first move, stomping into the ground and summoning up a large ball of rock. Jeong quickly deflected with a small ball of fire, causing an explosion of dust in the air.

The enemy continued to throw large rocks at him, very quickly for an earthbender. Jeong could see why his men got overwhelmed. Still, with every single ball of rock Jeong easily deflected it with his fire. The enemy rose to the challenge when he made of wave of earth, and rode it towards him.

Jeong jumped up as the man got close, and left behind a wall of fire with his feet after he used it to propel himself over. The man didn't stop in time, and ran straight through the wall causing him to catch on fire. After listening to the cries of pain, Jeong determined it had burned into his armor. He landed and watched the man fall to the ground struggling in vain to get his armor off or roll around to put the flames out. _What a brutal way to die, _he thought, _at least he put up an honorable fight._ Though this campaign was long and arduous, he preferred a quick battle like this over the quick slaughter on Kai's island.

Jeong walked closer to the body and bent down to observe the enemy leader. The smell coming from the combination of the armor burning and skin almost made him choke. When he observed closer, he noticed the man's hand digging, making movement and the dirt swirl in the ground .

Jeong's eyes widened. He jumped back as quickly as possible when he saw a spear of earth come up from the ground, and the man quickly lifting up his head to accompany the attack. He reacted too slow though, and as he moved back, the spear plunged deep into his upper left thigh, causing a wave of blood to stream down his bent leg.

"Dammit, you're quick…that should've killed you," he said weakly, before laying down his head and letting his last breath escape from him.

Even with his death, the earth spear stayed in place, lodged in deep. Jeong had to do this carefully, if he moved too quickly the earth could break off into his skin causing infection, or make an even worse wound. Taking a deep breath, he slowly stood up, easing the spear out and wincing at the pain. He fell down on the ground after it got out, clutching his leg to try to stop some of the bleeding.

"Commander Jeong Jeong! Someone get a medic!" One of his troops cried out. They had all been successful at either defeating or causing men to surrender, ultimately winning the battle.

"Psh, it's just a poke. Don't worry about it," Jeong said while the medic had fussed with his leg, tightly wrapping it up and stopping the bleeding. Some of his men helped him up , and he used one of them to lean on. He looked at the defeated enemy commander on the ground and smiled.

"It's over men. We can finally go home!" His declaration was followed by yells of happiness. They were all tired from this campaign, a total of four months of raking an area of rivers and woods free of rebels. He knew his men would be happy to go home, he was happy too. Even though he probably wouldn't be met with the best reception at home other than his mother and brother. All these months alone made Jeong miss Kai's sassy remarks and cold looks. _Who am I kidding? I just miss her presence. _Smirking at the thought, he limped back to his ship, ready to take his first steps back home.

"Surely you must think Jeong Jeong is somewhat attractive, Kai," Lady Bian said as she adjusted herself in her seat, trying to manage the little moving bundle of blankets in her arms.

"I mean, have you _seen_ him when he's training students? When they _all _have _nothing_ but pants on? Those abs! If I weren't married to the second most powerful man in the fire nation, I'd be after that," she said with assurance.

Kai couldn't help but bury her face in her hands and laugh. If there was one thing Bian was good at it was embarrassing her.

"OH! I see blushing! You agree with me then? Does that mean you might treat him a little better when he gets back? If you don't someone else might…" This time the laugher came from Ursa.

"Lady Bian, please stop harassing her! Your husband is attractive enough. Especially after coming back from killing those dragons." She took a sip of tea.

"Oh yes, the short and stumpy Dragon of the West, so attractive…" Ursa and Kai looked back and forth at each other, neither could tell if she was being sarcastic.

"Goodness look at your faces! Haha, I love my husband! Especially after he gave me this little gift." Getting rid of her usual humor, her features softened when she looked down into her arms. Little baby Lu Ten had a healthy head of black hair, round cheeks, and big bright golden eyes, which squirmed up as he began to whimper. Even at this young age, he just looked like a baby version of General Iroh.

"Ohhh, what's wrong Lu Ten," Bian cooed, "I think he's tired. I'm going to put him down for a nap." She then stood up and walked inside while gently rocking the baby bath and forth.

Ursa and Kai sat at a small round table in one of the dozens of courtyards at the Royal Palace. A large crimson umbrella covered them from the harsh sun that day, as they sipped on some ginseng tea, Kai drinking a non-spiced version of it.

Kai spent a lot of her days here, ever since that day in the reading room, she, Bian, and Lady Rou became really close. That day Kai released all of her frustrations about being in the Fire Nation. Everything from the sadness of losing her island and her brother, being forced to move here and marry Jeong Jeong, to the spicy food that constantly gave her an upset stomach. In her ranting she even mistakenly cursed Huojin in front of Lady Rou. To her surprise the lady reacted calmly, and told Kai that she would have a talk with her husband. Whatever she did must have worked, for now instead of cold looks and insults, Kai just got the cold looks. With the other issues, Lady Bian used light-hearted humor to comfort her, and then the next day invited Kai to have tea with her and some of her friends, thinking that maybe she needed some company other than the servants and her husband.

At first Kai felt out of place at these little gatherings, often standing in the corner sipping on the disgusting spiced tea, but the second Bian saw her alone she moved in and brought the conversation to Kai. She even made a servant get Kai some un-spiced tea in order to make her feel better. All of the women there were extremely interested in her island, though most of the questions were small and trivial, like "what is the food like there?" Kai responded cleverly by saying, "Better than what is being served here." At first everyone looked shocked at Kai's joke, glancing around at each other as if they couldn't decide if it was funny or not, Especially considering that she said it in the royal palace where everything was supposed to be perfect, they might've gotten in trouble if they chuckled. Then Lady Bian burst out in laughter almost to the point of tears, causing everyone to join in.

"I can agree with that! I think it's time I told my husband that something needs to get fixed around here…" She exclaimed. For the rest of the party Kai was included in the cliques of women, becoming one of the more popular ones there. After that day she and Lady Bian became extremely close, the first good friend that Kai had made here.

The young Ursa had also recently become a part of the group. Lady Bian thought it was only appropriate especially because her arranged engagement to Prince Ozai was finally getting in motion, and they were going to marry soon. She said that they could possibly bond in their experiences. Kai frowned at the thought, what could this girl possibly have in common with her? She wasn't forced to be here, and she was about to marry a prince and probably live the rest of her life in bliss. _What could she have in common with me? _Her thought was interrupted by Ursa's voice.

"So, I heard Commander Jeong Jeong was successful in his campaign. I received several messenger hawks earlier discussing how big of a victory this was for the fire nation. Will he be coming home soon, or staying out on the front?"

Kai sighed, "No he's definitely coming home…" she took a sip of tea after she said it. She got a messenger hawk from him personally, a long eloquently written account on how well the campaign went, how he couldn't wait to be home, and lastly, how he couldn't wait to see her. Three months ago she would have ripped the letter into pieces and thrown it into the fire, but for some reason something stopped her this time. Whether it was Bian's influence or just a random spark of kindness, Kai could not tell, but she left the letter sitting on her nightstand, and read it over again several times.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Ursa responded, "were you and Jeong Jeong having troubles?" Kai didn't know how to answer that, if they were having troubles it would have been because of her.

"No, no. It's nothing serious. Just…it was so hard getting used to being here. I probably didn't treat him or, anyone here fairly," That was first time Kai admitted it. As much as she didn't want to realize it, she knew that Jeong Jeong only acted the way he did because he wanted to make sure she was comfortable here. Kai thought about her wedding night and when she used blood bending on him, something she vowed only to use if involved her survival…even then she hesitated in using it. _That's how I treat someone who saved my life?_ She thought. Disgusted with herself, she drank the last few drops of her tea, and decided to change the subject.

"So, are you excited for your upcoming wedding?" Her question made Ursa look into her cup. She usually had a very calm and pensive personality, but this look on her face seemed completely depressed.

"Wow," Kai said apologetically, "I didn't mean to upset you."

"No it's not that. Prince Ozai and I get along fine. We knew this day was coming for a long time." Kai could tell she was hesitating to express her next thought, "It's just that, sometimes he gets this look in his eye…I can't even describe it. When he talks about certain battles or, sometimes things that involve his brother, he gets this look of ambition, you could tell he's pretty obsessed with it. It's a bit…disturbing." She took a sip of her tea, using Kai's ploy of changing the subject afterwards.

"Plus, I have to admit I'm a little nervous about the wedding night consummation, thing, hahaha," she awkwardly laughed. "Since you recently went through that do you think you could give me some advice?"

Kai couldn't believe she was asking this question, especially considering she was the last person she should ask. While Jeong was home they didn't touch each other, not even a hug or a kiss on the cheek, or holding each other while they slept. Kai felt terrible, because of her bloodbending she probably caused a permanent rift between them. She had to admit, she kind of missed his presence in that room even if they didn't touch each other. Without him it seemed empty and cold. Recently, when she had a nightmare about her island, she woke up and called to Jeong thinking he could comfort her. It took her only a few seconds to remember that he was gone. Maybe when he came back she would fix some of those problems, like Lady Bian said earlier, maybe as an apology. Feeling her self blush, she gave a quick answer to Ursa.

"Um, you know just, uh, let it go naturally. And a little wine always helps, for both of you," she joked.

Ursa chuckled in response, "Yes I'm sure it would." After that statement, Lady Bian came back out without little Lu Ten in her arms, and with a servant following her with a fresh kettle of tea, one spiced and one plain for Kai.

"Did I miss anything ladies?" She asked as she sat down in her chair.

"Oh nothing much!" both Kai and Ursa said at once. They both looked at each other and laughed, while Bian just sat there confused.

"Well, why don't you both have another cup of tea?" A servant picked up the plain tea and began pouring some for Kai, until she stopped him.

"Wait…why don't you pour me some of the spiced?"


	8. Chapter 8: Infectious Meetings

The Desertion Chapter 8

Jeong walked out to the courtyard and observed his surroundings. This morning was hot and humid, and beads of sweat already began to form on his forehead and chest. He limped slightly as he walked to his estate's practice fields. For some reason his injury from battle continued to cause him pain. The household doctor insisted that his leg was healing properly, and he used all the poultices available to clean it. Kai's opinion differed. When they go to sleep at night she claims the wound is mortifying by the smell, and insisted that she use waterbending to help heal it. Jeong didn't want to risk anything with her getting in trouble by doing something forbidden, especially if it's only because she used a little waterbending, so he stopped her. Plus he trusted the doctor's judgment enough to leave it alone. Kai scoffed angrily at his remark and went to bed without another word. It didn't matter for today, he did not plan on using his leg much.

He finally reached the training grounds, a large and barren part of the estate with no trees and a flat dusty ground. There were some stations with dummies of Earth Nation soldiers, where someone could practice with weapons or melee. Kai was out there, practicing some of her basic martial arts and running drills with kicks. Jeong guessed she had to pre-occupy herself somehow since she couldn't waterbend anymore. She was wearing black training clothes with loose pants, flat shoes, and shirt that just consisted of cloth wrapped heavily around her chest, like a lot of woman warriors in the fire nation wore. Her hair was tied up into a high ponytail, exposing her shoulders and the beginning of her scar.

When she saw Jeong passing, she actually stopped what she was doing and waved with a slight smile. Pleasantly surprised, Jeong waved and smiled back. Ever since he had gotten back from his campaign Kai had been nicer, finally eating meals with him when he had the free time, and even saying goodnight in stead of leaving him with hateful stares. She still had a fierce personality, and they often playfully argued when they disagreed on subjects like politics and other things related to the fire nation. In talking to her he learned how smart and observant she was, and actually appreciated her outside opinion on some things. Things weren't completely fine yet though. Sometimes when Jeong looked at her he could still tell that she was homesick, and they still have yet to touch each other at all, but things were still much better than they were previously.

Walking past Kai he saw his goal for the day, his first group of firebending students. His status as commander got him some perks and recognition among the nobility, with some of them paying extra for him to teach their children his master firebending skills. While Jeong was nervous to deal with his first group of students, he still knew how he would approach his lessons, emphasizing discipline and control. The students were all standing in a line, only three of them, each from very rich families. Jeong stopped in front of them, trying to stand strong even on his lame leg.

"Introduce yourselves." Jeong commanded. The first student to step up was a short young woman with a bob cut above her shoulders.

"My name is Kazuki," and she did the traditional low bow as one does to their master. The next one to step up was a young teenage boy with big cheeks and a round body.

"My name is Hwan," he copied the motions of the girl. The last student in line was a tall muscular young man looking as if he were trying to grow out his first sideburns.

"I'm Zhao," he said as he bowed. This one had a confident smirk on his face. The look in his eye told Jeong that he would be trouble.

"I'm assuming you all have learned firebending basics?"

"Yes, master," they all said at once.

"Alright then. Since I'm recovering from an injury on the leg, today we are just going to go over the basic stances along with breathing techniques."

"No firebending?" Zhao interrupted.

"Not today," Jeong replied harshly to him.

"Assume the first basic stance." The students followed his command, but Jeong shook his head at how sloppy all of their positions were.

"No, no. You need to have stronger stances, and all of you need to be wider." He put a hand on his chin, thinking of other ways to benefit his students.

"I'm going to go around and fix all of your basic stances individually. When I'm not on you I want you to stand on your first stance and breath in through your nose, and exhale through your mouth." The students looked confused at his command, obviously their previous teachers didn't teach the importance of this basic principle.

"It's to help you control your breath, which I'm sure you all know is important later in your firebending. Okay Kazuki, you first." Jeong fixed Kazuki's positions fairly quickly. She took his commands and advice really well, and he could tell she was going to be a good student.

While Jeong was fixing Hwan's messy stances, Zhao stopped what he was doing and interrupted him.

"I'm sorry." He said condescendingly, and stopping his exercise, "Why are we doing this? Why can't you show us real firebending? Like your signature firewall move?" He did a mocking movement of making a wall of fire, waving his arms loosely around like an idiot.

"Because you can't achieve moves like that without proper discipline and control, of which right now you are showing to lack." That put Zhao back in place with an annoyed look on his face, continuing his breathing exercises. When Jeong finally got to fixing Zhao, he saw him distracted and staring at Kai practicing across the grounds with a little smirk on his face. Jeong didn't like that one bit.

"Eyes focused in front of you Zhao!" His raised voice caused him to snap back in place. Compared to Zhao's cockiness, his stances took the longest to fix. After more fixing, the hour they had for the lesson had quickly finished, so he went ahead and dismissed them. Sharp pains ran through Jeong's leg anyways, and he didn't feel comfortable enough to continue.

"Thank you master Jeong Jeong." All three of them bowed, with Zhao showing a considerable amount of un-enthusiasm.

"Be back at the same time and same place for our lesson next week!" He yelled after his students as he watched them take their things and leave the grounds. He looked around to see if Kai was still outside. To his surprise, she was no longer practicing, but sitting on the ground cross-legged resting her head on a propped elbow.

"Do you want to walk back together?" Jeong offered, another sharp pain came through his leg, and he noticed his breathing became heavy.

"Sure," Kai replied, jumping up and dusting herself off. She moved next to him as they began walking together.

"I watched you teach," she said enthusiastically, "the way you approached it was…interesting."

"What do you mean?"

"Well since I've been here, I've been around town and have watched some firebending academies. Most of them just go straight into throwing balls of fire," she smirked.

Jeong's leg pain pulsed up and down, and seemed to get worse the more he walked. It was hard to keep his thoughts straight.

"They…are doing it wrong. Like you said your self, fire likes to destroy everything, and breaths and grows, and eventually loses control." He began limping heavier and slower, and Kai frowned in concern.

"I'm trying to prevent…that from happening…as much as possible."

"Jeong, are you alright?" She walked over to him and wrapped his arm around her shoulders so he could lean on her for support. This was the closest that they had ever been since they had been married. Jeong couldn't help but feel excited at feeling the heat of her this close. Now was not the time to appear weak.

"I'm perfectly fine," Trying to get the words out was difficult considering the lightheadedness he started to feel, "the…bandages need to be changed that's all."

"No that's not all! I told you the wound was getting infected, you need to see the doctor _right_ now!" Jeong could feel his strength leaving him, his vision blur and his weight pulling down on Kai, to the point where she stopped walking and lay him down on the ground, with her worried face leaning over him.

"Jeong Jeong? Jeong Jeong!" He heard Kai's voice fade away, as his sight turned to black.

Kai helped some of the household guards to carry Jeong their room, where they would lay him down until the doctor came. Lady Rou had been fluttering around behind them, and the second Kai and the guards laid Jeong down on the bed, she rushed over and wrapped her arms around him sobbing.

"Oh Jeong Jeong! My boy! What happened to you?" She cried.

In response to that question, Kai hopped on the bed onto her knees, and reached up to Jeong's waist and began taking off his pants. Rou looked at her shocked.

"What do you think you're doing? Now is _not_ the time!"

"Yes! It _is_ the time," after Kai yelled that, his pants were completely off and she began to unwrap the bandages around his thigh. She pulled away the cloth, and an overwhelming smell like rotten meat filled the room. Lady Rou finally let go of Jeong and started to gag. The other guards in the room gasped and some left the room when they couldn't deal with the smell. It took Kai all of her strength not to get sick. The wound itself blackened the surrounding skin, with deep red blood and pus seeping out.

"I told you this was happening Jeong Jeong," she said in his direction, hoping he could hear her in his sleep. Lady Rou finally stopped gagging and backed up toward the door trying to leave the room.

"I'm going to find the doctor," she rushed out the room and Kai could hear her footsteps running down the hallway. The rest of the guards just stood there dumbfounded. Kai had to get them out…she was going to try something they couldn't see.

"Well what are you waiting for," she called at them, "Help her find the doctor!" The command made them all jump and run out the door after Lady Rou. Once Kai was sure they were gone, she looked around the room for something she could use. Her eyes scanned across to a large gold cask of water on her nightstand, something she used at night if she ever got thirsty, and to secretly practice her water bending when no one was looking. Kai put out her hands and pulled the water out of the flask. She adjusted her self on the bed where she leaned over Jeong's legs to get into the best position to fix the wound, with her feet pointing toward his face. The noise caused Jeong to stir. When she looked back his eyes were opening and sweat continued to run down his forehead.

"Yeah I know it's pretty gross…" he said. He tried to sit himself up, but winced at the pain and just stayed where he was. His eyes widened when he saw Kai's hands filled with water.

"No, no don't use your waterbending, a doctor can deal with it just fine—"

"This is well past the expertise of your doctor," Kai snapped back, "I have been telling you ever since you got back that your wound was mortifying because of lack of proper care from your _doctor_. Now unless you want to lose your leg or your life I suggest you let me help." Things stayed tense for a second, then Kai saw his muscles relax, and nod, allowing Kai to take control.

She inhaled and exhaled, and prepared to do this very difficult water bending. Healing wasn't her specialty, she chose the warrior's path in life, but she was going to do all she could to save him…a thanks for him saving her. She started, and pushed the water from her hand into his leg.

"Argh!" He cringed and his leg jerked from the pain.

"I know this hurts but you have to stay still!" She exclaimed. All of a sudden she felt some fingers wrap around her ankle and squeeze.

"Okay…I guess that works," Kai sighed, and returned to work. If Kai had been able to look at his wound sooner, this whole thing wouldn't have been an issue. The infection was so deep now, that she had to waterbend around his entire leg and work from the outside in. Jeong clenched her ankle even tighter, and she wished there was another way to do this, something more comfortable, but she couldn't think of any other way. The water began to glow the deeper Kai went, the feeling making her eyes dilate and her head feel light. She had never felt something like this before. Most of the time she was just used to slicing at an enemy, or healing her minor cuts. This felt like she was reaching inside of Jeong, feeling every muscle, all the way down to the bone. She could even feel his blood flow, all the way back to his heart beating. _Maybe that's the key to fixing this, _she thought. Concentrating, she worked with Jeong's heart and blood, feeling the pulse and circulation, in order to cleanse the wound. The pain must have been deep for Jeong, he clutched her ankle so tightly that her foot tingled.

Whatever she was doing was working. Slowly, the blackness of his skin began to dissipate and become smaller. The blood and pus disappeared and wound slowly began to close. Kai focused the water in the one last spot of black, and once that went away, all that was left was a tender red spot on his skin. Kai heard several footsteps coming back down the hallway, and she jumped back off the bed, letting the blue glow die out, to look like she didn't do anything while Lady Rou and the guards were away.

"Look doctor! Look at his leg…DO something!" She came in pointing to the bed and when she looked over at Jeong's healed leg, confusion covered her face.

"My lady, his leg is healed. I told you the poultices were working…" The doctor said soothingly, trying to calm Lady Rou down.

"But I _saw_ his leg, half of it was black!"

"Mother listen…" Jeong said weakly. Kai shot a look at him, wondering if he was going to give her illegal waterbending away.

"I just passed out from the heat and overtraining this morning, and you were probably hysterical from worry. The doctor's poultices worked. Come closer," Rou approached slowly, the confusion still dominating her face, "it's completely healed."

She observed the wound carefully, then placed her hand on her forehead and sighed.

"Son, you need to be more careful and know your limits…ahh, I'm going to lay down for a few minutes, maybe resting my head will help me, remember things better." She slowly walked out of the room, along with the entourage of guards who returned with her. The doctor stayed for a moment, taking one last look at his leg.

"Well Master Jeong Jeong, I would like to examine your leg one more time, just to make sure everything is all right. It did make a… miraculous recovery since the last time I have seen it."

"Your medicines worked very well doctor. I appreciate your help," he said reassuringly.

"Thank you, Master Jeong Jeong," He said as he moved toward the door and bowed.

Once the doctor closed the door behind him, and his footsteps echoed down the hallway, Kai looked over to Jeong who looked right back at her. Both of them broke out into laughter.

"Hahaha, did you see the look on their faces?" Jeong said.

Kai's laughter settled into a smile.

"Thanks for not ratting me out." Her waterbending after the fall of her island would be treasonous if anyone else saw it.

"Why would I sell you out? You just helped me greatly. I should be thanking you," he began rubbing the spot where his wound used to be, "you waterbenders are truly amazing."

Kai looked down at her hands as she began to fiddle with them, "Well consider this my thanks, for…you know, everything else you have done for me." Before he could respond, she followed everyone else's path out the door, and ran to take a bath and read some more Xiomara scrolls for the rest of the day and late into the night. By the time she got back, Jeong was already back in bed, asleep and probably tired from his leg healing. She put on her bedclothes and crawled under the blankets, this time, lying closer to him, close enough so that when she lay on her side, her back was touching his.

All of a sudden he moved, and Kai felt an arm wrap around her waist and hold her.

"Thanks again," Jeong whispered in her ear, then he moved his head to give her a deep kiss on her cheek, eventually settling back into his pillows to go back to sleep.

Kai's heart was racing, almost beating out of her chest. Not because she felt the need to slap or bloodbend him away, but because she actually liked it.


End file.
